Semite Quotes

On backing Mel Gibson after his 2006 anti-Semitic comments to a cop while drunk: Is he an anti-Semite? Absolutely not. But, it`s no secret that he has always fought a terrible battle with alcoholism. (Mel) was a shining example of how low you can go when you are young and still pull yourself up. He took his recovery very seriously, which is why I know he is strong enough to get through this now.

I remember, when I was in university I studied history, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, `The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.` I know it`s not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but I think it`s an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic.

Asked if he felt besieged by the opposition to The Passion of the Christ (2004): Beseiged? No, not really. They`re pretty pathetic actually. I sort of look at them now and feel sorry for them. They`ve given their best shot, they kind of came out with this mantra again and again and again, `He`s an anti-Semite, he`s an anti-Semite, he`s an anti-Semite, he`s an anti-Semite.` I`m not. But they like to say that in newspapers. So it`s kind of how those, anything repeated often enough slowly amalgamates into some sort of accepted truth.

I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 - long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else`s pride, they called me a racist. I`ve worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe. I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite. Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh. (1999)

I think all Nazis didn`t see themselves as bad people. I`ve never met a racist yet who thought he was a racist. Or an anti-Semite who thought they were anti-Semitic.

And I think all Nazis didn`t see themselves as bad people. I`ve never met a racist yet who thought he was a racist. Or an anti-Semite who thought they were anti-Semitic.

The paradox of anti-Semitism is that it is invariably up to the Jews to explain away the charges. The anti-Semite simply has to make them.